She’s best known as Sharon Strezlecki from Kath and Kim but it seems Magda Szubanski has been hiding another skill from us for all these years – she’s a brilliant writer.
The 55-year-old’s first book, Reckoning, has just won the coveted Book of the Year prize at the Australian Book Industry Awards, proudly sponsored by The Australian Women’s Weekly.
Reckoning, a memoir that centres around Magda’s relationship with her father, a teenage assassin during World War II, also won the Biography Book of the Year at the gala, held in Sydney tonight.
Full list of winners at the ABIA 2016 Book Awards
BOOK OF THE YEAR
Reckoning: A Memoir (Magda Szubanski, Text Publishing)
Biography Book of the Year
A Mother’s Story (Rosie Batty with Bryce Corbett, HarperCollins, HarperCollins)
Flesh Wounds (Richard Glover, ABC Books, HarperCollins)
Reckoning: A Memoir (Magda Szubanski, Text Publishing) WINNER
The Anti-Cool Girl (Rosie Waterland, 4th Estate, HarperCollins)
General Fiction Book of the Year
Close Your Eyes (Michael Robotham, Sphere, Hachette Australia)
The Lake House (Kate Morton, Allen & Unwin, Allen & Unwin)
The Patterson Girls (Rachael Johns, MIRA, Harlequin Enterprises) WINNER
The Perfumer’s Secret (Fiona McIntosh, Michael Joseph, Penguin Random House)
General Non-fiction Book of the Year
Australia’s Second Chance (George Megalogenis, Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Random House)
Island Home (Tim Winton, Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Random House) WINNER
One Life: My Mother’s Story (Kate Grenville, Text Publishing)
The Dismissal (Paul Kelly with Troy Bramston, Viking, Penguin Random House)
Illustrated Book of the Year
Cornersmith (Alex Elliott-Howery and James Grant, Murdoch Books, Murdoch Books)
I Quit Sugar: Simplicious (Sarah Wilson, Macmillan Australia, Pan Macmillan)
The Happy Cookbook (Lola Berry, Plum, Pan Macmillan) WINNER
Wendy Whiteley and the Secret Garden (Janet Hawley, Lantern, Penguin Random House)
International Book of the Year
Grandpa’s Great Escape (David Walliams, HarperCollins Childrens Books, HarperCollins)
Gut: the inside story of our body’s most under-rated organ (Giulia Enders, Scribe Publications) WINNER
The Girl on the Train (Paula Hawkins, Doubleday, Penguin Random House)
The Story of the Lost Child (Elena Ferrante, Text Publishing)
Literary Fiction Book of the Year
The Natural Way of Things (Charlotte Wood, Allen & Unwin, Allen & Unwin)
The Other Side of the World (Stephanie Bishop, Hachette, Hachette Australia) WINNER
The Secret Chord (Geraldine Brooks, Hachette, Hachette Australia)
The World Without Us (Mireille Juchau, Bloomsbury Publishing, Bloomsbury)
Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year
Reckoning: A Memoir (Magda Szubanski, Text Publishing)
Rush Oh! (Shirley Barrett, Picador Australia, Pan Macmillan)
Salt Creek (Lucy Treloar, Picador Australia, Pan Macmillan) WINNER
The Anti-Cool Girl (Rosie Waterland, 4th Estate, HarperCollins)
Book of the Year Older Children (age range 8 to 14 years)
Cloudwish (Fiona Wood, Macmillan Australia, Pan Macmillan)
Friday Barnes 2: Under Suspicion (R.A. Spratt, Random House Australia Children’s, Penguin Random House)
Illuminae (Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, Allen & Unwin, Allen & Unwin) WINNER
The Cat With the Coloured Tail (Gillian Mears, illustrated by Dinalie Dabarera, Walker Books)
Book of the Year for Younger Children (age range 0 to 8 years)
Perfect (Danny Parker, illustrated by Freya Blackwood, Little Hare, Hardie Grant Egmont)
The 65-Storey Treehouse (Andy Griffiths, illustrated by Terry Denton, Pan Australia, Pan Macmillan) WINNER
The Amazing True Story of How Babies Are Made (Fiona Katauskas, ABC Books, HarperCollins)
This Is a Ball (Beck & Matt Stanton, ABC Books, HarperCollins)
Small Publishers’ Children’s Book of the Year
Kookoo Kookaburra (Gregg Dreise, Magabala Books)
My Pop is a Pirate (Damon Young, illustrated by Peter Carnavas, UQP, University of Queensland Press)
Numerical Street (Hilary Bell, illustrated by Antonia Pesenti, NewSouth, NewSouth Publishing)
The Underwater Fancy-Dress Parade (Davina Bell, illustrated by Allison Colpoys, Scribble, Scribe Publications) WINNER
Small Publishers’ Adult Book of the Year
All Fall Down (Matthew Condon, UQP, University of Queensland Press) WINNER
Body Lengths (Leisel Jones with Felicity McLean, Nero, Black Inc)
Give the Devil His Due (Sulari Gentill, Pantera Press)
The Art of Free Travel (Patrick Jones and Meg Ulman, NewSouth, NewSouth Publishing)
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